A look at Sword of the Stars: A Murder of Crows Review - PAGE 1

The future is retro at Kerberos Productions.

Nestled in the depths of Vancouver, Kerberos Productions has just finished the latest expansion for their Sword of the Stars, a 4x (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) title with its roots in Masters of Orion, Spaceward Ho and Homeworld - which is where a chunk of the Kerberos team originates from. Interestingly, Kerberos Productions also has a writer on the team - Arinn Dembo. She's worked with the team to create a background story for each of the game's races and has even penned a SotS book, The Deacon's Tale, that can be found in the Collector's Edition of the game.

Sword of the Stars: A Murder of Crows went gold on Sept. 22 and is hitting the net through Gamer's Gate adding two new tech trees, more civilization options, as well as a new race to the game - the drone-happy Morrigi. To celebrate, we stopped by to talk to the Kerberos team. Chris Stewart showed us around the office, giving us a sneak peek at a few features of the new game as well as the other titles they're working on - NorthStar and Fort Zombie.

Building from the Born of Blood (BoB) expansion that added the Zuul slavers to the mix, A Murder of Crows (AMoC) brings the Morrigi to the mix. First appearing as random encounters in BoB, the Morrigi have had enough of the upstart new races and are bringing the might of their drone fleets to bear so they can get the damn kids off their lawn. Having suffered a massive tragedy in their past, they use drone technology to keep the surviving members of their once-great race safe from harm.

The Morrigi also use a 'Grav Flock' drive that makes their ships go faster if there are more of them. And, their weapon systems are concealed within ship pods until they reach firing range, so you won't know how much trouble you're in until they hit you!

Set further along the Sword of the Stars storyline, space is now full of civilians and they can get uppity! From revolutions (even for the Hivers!) to planets with split populations and even deeper relations with other races thanks to the Xeno-Cultural tech tree, there are a lot more angles to the game. You can also find more mega threats - great googly alien things that show up and kick your whole civilization in the junk.

Finally, this expansion marks the end of the first Sword of the Stars story arc. It's not the end of the game yet though! Darker and older races lurk in the depths of space, waiting for the stars to be right. Or at least for Sword of the Stars 2, which is already on the drawing board, to arrive a year or two from now.

So, what's Kerberos up to in the meantime? Glad you asked!